Dr. Hitzig leads New Study of ACell's MatriStem products for scar correction and Cloning new hair growth.

For more information contact: Cher Schmitt - 516-536-0385

Recent advances in the world of Regenerative Medicine have been very exciting. Fingertips are being regenerated, organs and heart valves have been cloned and are successfully being implanted in patients. Now one of the leading innovators in the field of regenerative medicine, ACell, Inc., has asked the Plastic Surgeons at Dr. Gary Hitzig's offices (www.NYHairloss.com ) in Rockville Centre, NY to test the use of their MatriStem product for healing the wounds associated with hair transplant sites. Dr. Hitzig and his colleagues will examine MatriStem's ability to reduce scar tissue and regenerate hair within the donor region of hair transplant patients. MatriStem will also be tested for cloning transplanted hair from the donor area and the beard and growing it in bald areas on the top of the scalp. In the past 6 months, ACell's MatriStem has been used on 8 hair transplant patients, one of which was Dr. Hitzig himself.

ACell's patented Extracellular Matrix (ECM) products are covered by multiple 510(k) clearances and address important unmet clinical needs, providing safe, effective and therapeutic outcomes. Derived from porcine urinary bladders and referred to as UBM (urinary bladder matrix), trademarked as MatriStem™, ACell's core technology is a naturally occurring, non-crosslinked, completely resorbable acellular biomaterial. A similar "first generation" ECM technology has been used to treat over 500,000 patients with remarkable effect. ACell's MatriStem products are the next generation of ECM technology due to its unique characteristics featuring a basement membrane surface which is ideal for epithelial cell growth in many applications.

"We are growing new hair in prior donor scar sites as well as duplicating (growing multiple hairs from a single transplanted beard or donor hair) in the bald recipient area" states Dr. Ted Chaglassian, a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon and former Chief of Plastic Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital and Attending Physician at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in NYC. He further states: "Where we go from here is anyone's guess but the future of cloning growing hair has just been made a reality in the present!"

                 
(Left) Scarring in old hair transplant donor areas before ACell treatment - (Right) New hair growth in donor scar 4 months later.

We will now be expanding the study by accepting a select few additional patients to work on using the Regenerative FDA cleared MatriStem MicroMatrix. The MatriStem MicroMatrix products are unique in that they fundamentally change healing by triggering abundant new blood vessel formation at the wound site and also recruit to that site numerous cell types, including progenitor cells, which have the potential to differentiate into numerous types of site specific tissues. During the healing process, the injured tissue is remodeled as the MatriStem product is completely resorbed, leaving new tissue where scar tissue would normally be expected, which may also include new hair!

                 
Female patient before (Left) and After 6 months post op (Right) grafts dipped in ACELL prior to transplanting.

Gary Hitzig, M.D. is a pioneer in the field of hair restoration surgery. He is the author of Help and Hope for Hair Loss, patented the Hitzig Linear Punch and has published numerous peer reviewed articles on hair transplant techniques including Auto Cloning of Beard Hair. Dr. Hitzig has also presented new techniques at medical hair restoration symposiums around the world. You can learn more about Dr. Hitzig at www.nyhairloss.com. ACell's technology is not limited to one market segment (e.g., wound care), but instead can serve as a core technology for treatments across a broad range of human medical conditions. For more information go to: www.acell.com